In a rare move, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has recalled its order setting aside the payment of compensation to Muslim youths falsely implicated in terror cases by the Hyderabad Police. The division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyothi Sengupta and Justice KC Bhanu has now decided to keep its earlier order, passed on September 16, in abeyance and re-open the case to hear the affected parties.
The division bench, on a writ petition filed by a BJP leader Venkatesh Goud, had set aside the State Government order of December 2011 paying compensation of Rs 70 lakh to 70 Muslim youths of Hyderabad who were illegally detained and tortured in the aftermath of the blasts in Mecca Masjid in 2007. The bench had ordered the recovery of the compensation already paid to the youth.
The bench decided to issue notices to all the youths who were paid compensation by the State Government and decided to give them an opportunity to present their case before the court. The matter will come up for hearing after two weeks. Chief Justice Sengupta cited a Supreme Court judgement that after an order is pronounced, if during the course of hearing new facts come to notice, the previous order can be made ineffective and matter can be heard further.
He said, “After dictation (of the order) during correction we have noticed that there were serious lapses while hearing the matter and delivering the order”. It includes not hearing the beneficiaries of the compensation by making them parties. Earlier order of the division bench had evoked sharp criticism from various quarters that it had passed the orders without issuing notices to the affected parties and impleading the State Government or the National Commission for Minorities.
Stung by the HC orders, the affected youths, the State minorities’ commission and the State Government were contemplating to file an appeal in the Supreme Court when the relief came from the High Court itself. While the writ petition by Venkatesh Goud had challenged the payment of compensation to the persons who were acquitted or discharged by the court in the Mecca Masjid blast case, the victims contended that they were never an accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case but they were illegally detained and tortured by the police after the Mecca Masjid blast. Some of them were later booked in another case of conspiracy and possessing jehadi literature but the court acquitted them in that case.
While initially the Hyderabad city police had suspected the involvement of Muslim groups in the blast in Mecca Masjid and rounded up more than a hundred youths, the subsequent investigation by the CBI and the National Investigation Agency revealed the involvement of Hindu extremist elements in the incident.